Notes and Editorial Reviews

In the Classical Hall of Fame in Fanfare 15:6 I discussed Bernstein's amazing "Pathétique," a performance that has more whimpering and self-pity than even the composer put into the music, and that's saying a lot. It's as compelling and discomfiting as watching a method actor ham it up on television. Markevitch, by contrast, presents Tchaikovsky with clarity, honesty, and belief in both the spirit and the letter of the score; Markevitch, like Bernstein, was also a composer, but he doesn't try to muscle in on the authorship of the music. This symphony is as hackneyed as the "Pathétique," and commentators have long delighted in sniping at it. With Markevitch I don't notice crudity, obviousness, or patchyRead more construction, and I don't think it is because I'm being mesmerized (it can still seem like a tired old nag of a piece in other hands). I do hear what a tremendous orchestrator and clever orchestral thinker Tchaikovsky was; the winds and brass of the London Symphony circa 1966 had colorful, distinctive tonal qualities that Markevitch was able to exploit and mold to his purposes.

-- David K. Nelson, Gramophone [3/1993, reviewing Symphony no 5]

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...Overall, these performances match the best available, with the adrenalin running free, a fine understanding of the music and a spontaneous Tchaikovskian feeling pervading the music-making throughout... Symphony No. 4 also has thrilling outer movements, as exciting as any I have heard. Markevitch's way of leaning on the rocking crescendo phrase in the first movement is a nice individual touch, while the climax of the development provides a really thrilling moment, matching the unbuttoned Russian fervour at the close of the finale. The central movements are no less appealingly imaginative. Symphony No. 5 has a similarly direct first movement, with everything moving forward (perhaps a shade inflexibly) in a single sweep, and the slow movment generating plenty of emotional power. The main controversial point here is that the re-statement of the big tune in the finale is rather slow and solid. The intensity of No. 6 (Pathetique) is in no doubt: the first movement presses on with passionate energy, the central movements are well contrasted—the scherzo/march ebullient—and the finale is often elegiac in feeling without loss of passion. Throughout the set the LSO's playing is both committed and polished.